Textured Images

textured image

The hottest development in screen printed cap graphics is the 3-D image.  These
caps can really be cool.  This printing technology has great potential
for any screen printer who wants to develop new customers and sales.

Printing 3-D images is the same as printing a traditional T-shirt, except highly tensioned,
coarse mesh with thick capillary film are used to create a deep ink well on
the print side of the screen.  The finished image will have the thickness
of the stencil and that stencil can be selected to bury seams and a variety
of weaves, including corduroy.  However, the printed surface will be smooth.

As screen printers develop new forms of graphics to attract new customers, the screen printing industry can expect to see the smooth printed surfaces decorated with
layers of ink deposits to create textured effects and a variety of colors from
both vector and pixel based computer programs. 

The future of cap printing may sound high tech and complicated or requiring advanced computer
art skills, but actually, the art preparation is pretty simple.  Textured
images can be created by hand drawing, with a vector based computer program,
or a pixel based program.

Pen and Ink or Computer Art   Whichever method is used to create
the art, cap art is simpler than shirt art.  The images are small so
that there is no room for a sophisticated development of a multiple of colors.  High
contrast art works better, if the image is to be recognized easily from 15’ or
more.  Corporate, school and team logos, which are among the largest
potential markets, are typically the simple line, or vector, art with the
hard edges and contrasts to stand out at a distance.

Since 6 panel caps are among the most popular, and are considered among the most difficult
to print due to the seam vertically down the center of the image area, let’s
decorate a 6 panel.  We will leave the 5 panel for the faint hearted screen
printer.  Whichever cap is selected, the front panel must be flexible
to conform to the platen.

Seams, stitching and the texture can result in voids where the ink did not print.  Such
occurrences are avoided by using a coarse mesh like 60 monofilament so that
a lot of ink is able to pass through the screen.  The thickness of the
stencil selected to be adhered to the bottom of the screen needs to be sufficient
to bury the seam without the color of the fabric showing through the ink film.  The
ink, 3-D ink, prints similarly to other plastisol inks, except there is an
additive in the ink so that the ink will hold a hard edge when the support
of the stencil is lifted off the image.  Now the texture of the garment
has been converted to a smooth printing plate that needs to be flash cured
before printing more colors.

Hand Drawn Textured Images  For those without a computer, computer art
program or computer skills, the image of your choice can be traced on a light
table or the window using a pen and ink.  I like to use an inexpensive
pen set from Staedtler with four point sizes.  These pens are sold in
art and stationary stores.  Drawing pens produce more opaque and consistent
lines and images than pencils or ballpoint pens.

Your customer will have a logo or mascot that the customer recognizes.  For the purpose
of this article, an image in the public domain was selected so that there is
no risk of copyright or trademark infringement.  This image will be hand
drawn by a person who is not an artist and has no artistic skill to demonstrate
that you, too, can produce textured art.  Of course, for those with computer
capability, the quality of the color registration will be better, and the dimension
of each line or dot can be held to a higher standard.

The image to be copied is marked as Print 3.  Remember to add registration
marks at three or more points, but not at any location below the bottom of
the image.  The area below the bottom of the image will be cut off so
that the image can be printed close to the bill of the cap.  Print 3
is a tracing on the light table from the original art.  After all images
are traced, they are photocopied on to vellum, and the vellum is taped over
the original drawing in registration so that the image will be dense black
to expose thick stencils that will wash out easily.

The tracing is then used to prepare a composite drawing (Print 1) duplicating all the colors.  This
creates a plate that compensates for the fabric texture, including the seam
down the center of the image area.   Holes are left in the plate
for the eyes.  The color of the fabric will show through to add another
color and to lend additional dimension to the image.  If the number of
available screens is not a problem, then the 3-D ink could be printed as a
trap over a fill color representing the eye color.

The composite (Print 1) is removed from the original and another piece of vellum laid over
the original tracing of the tiger.  Now the yellow is dawn within the
guidelines of original (Plate 3) in the areas where a standard yellow plastisol
ink will be printed.  Then that vellum sheet (Print 2) is removed and
replaced with another sheet of vellum so that Print 4 can be drawn.

Dimension in this design is created with three of four screens.  Print 1, the composite,
is white 3-D ink. That is flash cured.  Then the yellow is printed for
color, but no dimension.  Third, the black is printed with dimension.  The
dimension provides opacity so that printing over yellow will not change the
black color.  Again, since the black is a 3-D ink being printed with dimension,
the black must be flash cured before printing another color.  The last
color, tan, is actually a suede.  This suede ink includes a slight puffing
agent that is included by the ink manufacturer.  As a result, the nose
has additional dimension standing off the cap, plus a brushed leather feel.

Controlling the Third Dimension  The dimension of each of the three colors can
be controlled by either the selection of the stencil thickness, or by printing
once, flash curing and printing again.  Printing the same color more
than one time is slow, but works for those who do not have thicker capillary
films.  Screen making is easier with thinner capillary film, and printing
fine details is easier also.

As an option, and this is where textured printing starts to get real interesting, selected
portions of the design can be copied for a separate screen.  If we want
the whiskers to stand off of the cap more than the rest of the image, another
screen for just the whiskers could be prepared to stack the ink up at that
location.  Of course, a flash cure would be necessary between each print
stroke.  Similarly, the nose and area above the eyes could be printed
and flashed cured before the tan ink is printed.  The finished colors
are printed over the underbase colors used to create the dimension.

By printing over selected areas of the image, and by using puff, suede and other specialty
inks, a variety of dimensions and resolutions can be created.  The suede
will even have a different feel compared to the rest of the image.  The
nose could have been printed as large half tone dots rather than as a solid
spot color.  Half tone dots provide the opportunity to control how any
ink with a puffing agent will rise.  So larger dots release more ink and
provide more of a rise than smaller dots.  The dots will attempt to expand
in all directions like a beach ball being inflated.  If the dots are close,
they will merge providing complete coverage of the cap and a greater dimension
to the ink where the ink deposit is greater.

Printing Set Up   Thicker ink deposits require greater off-contact
distances so that the ink will release from the screen.  The 3-D inks
as shipped by the ink manufacturers tend to be stiff and a little difficult
to release from the screen.  So here are some ways to make the ink shear
more easily from the screen so that the off-contact distance does not have
to be increased even further.

First, ink should be mixed well.  An easy way to mix inks thoroughly is an electric
hand drill with a spade drill bit.  The bit can be wiped clean easily
after the inks have been mixed.  When ink is whipped with an electric
drill, the ink prints easier and shears better.  Second, the 3-D ink
can be blended with another ink that is not 3-D.  That other ink should
be selected to match the color and to be an ink that prints like pudding.  Although
the ink should be tested, as much as 50% of the final ink quantity may be ink
that is not 3-D ink without losing the 3-D properties.  Third, the addition
of 2% or 4% of curable reducer will help the ink shear better.

The off-contact distance can be adjusted on nearly all machines by loosening the bolts of the
channel clamp that holds the screens.  However, an easier method is to
put a paint stick or other shim in the channel clamp before the screen is put
in the machine.  That paint stick raises the print height of the screen
which is the off-contact distance.

Dealing with the Seam   Seams can be a variety of widths and thicknesses.  The
easiest and least expensive way to deal with a seam is to place material
like 1/16” neoprene on the print surface of the press on either side
of the seam.  The two pieces of neoprene can be moved in toward the
center or out as the width of the seam requires.  Then lay the seam
into the slot created between the two pieces of neoprene.  When you
rub your hand over the image area of the cap, feel for the seam to be lower
or higher than the rest of the image area.  Masking tape can be placed
between the neoprene pieces to compensate for the seam thickness so that
the front of the cap feels smooth like a 5 panel cap.

Time to Get Started   Printing textures is among the easiest developments
in the screen printing industry you can undertake.  You do not have
to be an artist or high tech printer.  You do need coarse mesh and preferably
a retensionable frame with capillary film on the mesh.  The result will
be textured effects that are sure to catch the eye and heart of your customer,
and that’s good business.